Rozanski, E.P.

Computer Graphics
The Electrical Engineering Handbook
Ed. Richard C. Dorf
Boca Raton: CRC Press LLC, 2000
2000 by CRC Press LLC
91
Compufer CraphIcs
91.1 Intioduction
91.2 Giaphics Haidwaie
Haid Copy Technologies Display Technologies Standaid
CRT Othei Display Technologies
91.3 Giaphics Softwaie
Engineeiing Softwaie Packages Geneial Puipose Libiaiies and
Packages Solid Modeling Packages Object-Oiiented
Piogiamming Plotting and Page Desciiption
Languages Inteiaction
91.4 Conclusion
91.1 Intruductiun
The teim computer graphics iefeis to the geneiation, iepiesentation, manipulation, piocessing, and display of data
by a computei. Computei-geneiated images may be ieal oi imagined, animated oi still, two-dimensional (2-D) oi
thiee-dimensional (3-D). Today most computeis, paiticulaily those in the PC, Macintosh, oi woikstation categoiies,
have giaphics capability. Theii cential components aie a giaphical display device, usually a cathode iay tube (CRT),
and one oi moie input devices (e.g., keyboaid, mouse, digitizei, data glove). Output devices include lasei piinteis
oi video oi such othei displays as goggles oi eyephones" as in the case of some virtual reality systems.
Computei giaphics encompasses a wide vaiiety of applications. It has expanded its scope fiom the mundane
business/piesentation giaphics to placing desktop publishing at eveiyone`s fngeitips. Highly inteiactive ieal-
time systems aie used in ight simulatois wheie the display iepiesents changes in the scene oi landscape. In
engineeiing, computei-aided design (CAD) systems allow useis to cieate, stoie, manipulate, and test objects
and designs. Fully integiated systems allow standaid component paits libiaiies to be incoipoiated into a
pioduct. Pioduct design and diafting infoimation is fed into manufactuiing opeiations via numeiical contiol
inteifaces. Othei engineeiing applications that make extensive use of giaphics include veiy laige scale integiation
(VLSI) and solid modeling.
Giaphics has emeiged as the vehicle foi visualizing physical phenomena and the volume visualization of
complex datasets Puigathofei and Schonhut, 1989; Vince, 1990; Kaufmen et al., 1996]. Some examples include
the medical modeling of the anatomy and MRIs Kaufmen et al., 1996]. One application simulates laboiatoiy
testing of a new fiiction mateiial foi disc biakes and visualizes tempeiatuie distiibution of the biakes` ability
to conduct oi absoib heat Puigathofei and Schonhut, 1989]. In mathematics, B. B. Mandelbiot defned the
geometiy of fractals. Fiactals, geometiical self-similai objects with fiactional dimension, foim a poweiful tool
foi geneiating objects that iesemble natuial phenomena such as mountains, tiees, and coastlines de Ruitei,
1988; Mandelbiot, 1982].
In the woild of animation, the computei has taken the diudgeiy out of tiansfoiming and iediawing objects.
It has enhanced cell animation as well as pioduced glitzy Hollywood special effects such as moiphing, a piocess
of letting the computei tiansfoim one image to anothei by geneiating all the in-between images.
One of the most spectaculai uses of giaphics is in the aiea of viitual ieality (VR). This technology, which
uses high-iesolution giaphics teiminals and head-mounted displays (HMD) oi eyephones, piovides the usei
veIyn . RozansII
Foc|erer Inrrure of Tec|no|ogy
2000 by CRC Press LLC
with a steieo view of a viitual woild and an ability to navigate thiough it. These systems have a tiacking device
to deteimine the position of the usei and devices, such as data gloves, foi inputting commands Thomas and
Stuait, 1992]. Applications include simulation and aichitectuie.
Reseaich in the aiea of computei giaphics has centeied on all aspects of haidwaie, softwaie, and algoiithm
development. Some of these aieas aie
1. Object-oiiented enviionments: Design of piogiamming languages, tools, databases, usei inteifaces, and
animation Puigathofei and Schonhut, 1989; Cunningham et al., 1992; de Ruitei, 1988].
2. Viitual ieality: The design of system aichitectuie, the cieation and integiation of component haidwaies,
the cieation of softwaie, the building of viitual enviionments, the development of ieal-woild applica-
tions, and the study of philosophical and human peiceptual issues Stuait, 1992].
3. Scientinc visualization: Giaphics softwaie solutions, piactical implementations, usei inteifaces, high-
iesolution haid copy, data iepiesentation and metafles Puigathofei and Schonhut, 1989].
4. Algoiithmic design: Ray tiacing Stiabei, 1987].
5. Haidwaie design: Woikstation aichitectuies, suppoit foi geometiic modeling Stiabei, 1987].
6. Coloi models and manipulation Puigathofei and Schonhut, 1989].
7. Page desciiption languages (PDLs): PostSciipt inteipieteis Puigathofei and Schonhut, 1989].
8. CAD and solid modeling: VLSI, data exchange, geometiic modeling de Ruitei, 1988; Puigathofei and
Schonhut, 1989].
91.2 Graphics Hardvare
Computei giaphics systems compiise seveial diffeient output components in which to display computei-geneiated
images. These components aie classifed into two gioups: (1) haid copy technologies and (2) display technologies.
Hard Cupy Technu!ugies
Haid copy technologies include piinteis, pen plotteis, electiostatic plotteis, lasei piinteis, ink-jet plotteis,
theimal tiansfei plotteis, and flm iecoideis Foley et al., 1996]. These devices use eithei a iastei oi vectoi style
of diawing. The iastei style uses disciete dots, and the vectoi style uses a continuous diawing motion. Each
display device is distinguished by its dot size and the numbei of dots pei inch, known as aJJressa||y. The
closei the dots, the smoothei the image. The smallei the dot, the fnei the detail. Reso|uon is ielated to dot
size and is the numbei of distinguishable lines pei inch. This may vaiy in the hoiizontal and veitical diiections.
High-iesolution devices have fne detail, smooth lines, and ciisp images.
Coloi may be achieved in seveial ways, depending on the device. Some devices use multicoloied iibbons
with single piint heads, multiple piint heads with diffeient iibbons, oi oveistiiking to combine colois. Othei
devices use coloi pens, spiay (e.g., ink jet), tonei (e.g., lasei piintei, electiostatic plotteis), oi pigment fiom
coloied wax papei (e.g., theimal tiansfei).
The haid copy devices vaiy in coloi and intensity levels, addiessability, dot size, cost, image quality, and speed.
The lasei piintei is becoming the most common, high-quality output device in this categoiy Foley et al., 1996].
Disp!ay Technu!ugies
Displays aie, foi the most pait, chaiacteiized by theii iesponsiveness to a changing image. As with the haid
copy technologies, display technologies vaiy gieatly with iespect to peifoimance and cost. Guidelines foi
compaiisons aie based on the following chaiacteiistics: powei consumption, scieen size, depth, weight, iug-
gedness, biightness, addiessability, contiast, intensity levels pei dot, viewing angle, coloi capability, and ielative cost.
Standard CRT
The most common component of giaphics displays has been the CRT, which is used in televisions. The CRT
is composed of fve paits: (1) the election gun, which when heated emits elections at an appiopiiate iate; (2)
the contiol giid, which iegulates the ow of elections; (3) the focusing system, which concentiates the beam
2000 by CRC Press LLC
into a fne point; (4) the deection system, which diiects the beam to the appiopiiate location; and (5) the
phosphoi scieen, which glows when bombaided with the election beam. The erssente of the phosphoi is
defned as the time fiom the iemoval of excitation to when the phosphoiescence has decayed to 10% of the
initial light output Foley et al., 1996]. Depending on the peisistence of the phosphoi used, the scieen will need
to be continually re[res|eJ, oi iediawn. Coloi is pioduced by laying tiiads of ied-gieen-blue (RGB) phosphois
on the scieen and using thiee election guns, one foi each coloi, to excite the coiiesponding phosphoi.
The iastei CRT scans the image, one iow at a time, fiom a matiix whose elements coiiespond to a xe|, oi
point on the scieen. This matiix is iefeiied to as the [rame |u[[er and allows foi a constant iefiesh iate, usually
60 times pei second. Systems may also have moie than one fiame buffei (double buffei) to facilitate fastei
image geneiation. These displays include high iesolution (1024 11280), SVGA (768 1024), NTSC (~350 480)
and HDTV (720 1280 and 1080 1920) Baily et al., 1996]. In vectoi CRT displays, the pictuie is geneiated
in a continuous sweep, much like tiacing an image on papei. The iefiesh iate on the vectoi displays is a function
of the complexity of the image. The iesult may be a noticeable ickei on the scieen.
Other Disp!ay Technu!ugies
1. Diiect view stoiage tubes (DVST): These devices weie the piimaiy displays used in eailiei systems. These
vectoi diawing devices stoied theii images on a giid, which was continually bombaided with elections
in oidei to tiansfei the image to the scieen. The advantage was that once the image was diawn, the
iefiesh piocess took place independently of the complexity of the image, theieby pioducing a constant
image on the scieen. The disadvantage of these systems was that no pait of the image could be selectively
eiased without eiasing the entiie giid and iesending the modifed image to the display.
2. Liquid ciystal display (LCD): This device uses matiix addiessing and iefieshes the display one iow at a
time. Appiopiiate voltages aie applied to the ciystals, causing them to line up. They iemain polaiized,
not allowing light to pass thiough; light is absoibed, causing daik spots on the display. These devices
aie light in weight, iugged, and have a low powei consumption, faii intensity, and low cost.
3. Plasma panels: These devices have an aiiay of neon bulbs between glass plates, which may be tuined on
oi off. While coloi is possible, it has not been commeicially available. These devices excel in scieen size,
weight, iuggedness, and biightness chaiacteiistics but aie geneially high in cost.
4. Electioluminescent displays: These devices also use a giid-like stiuctuie foi addiessing elements. The
light-emitting mateiial, a zinc sulfde doped with manganese, is available in coloi. These devices have
excellent biightness chaiacteiistics but aie high in cost.
FIGURE 91.1 An example of a fguie geneiated on the Macintosh with Miciosoft Excel 3.0, showing the effect of foui
diffeient tieatments on two diffeient measuied vaiiables. Although this infoimation could be piesented in two dimensions,
the 3-D illustiation can be moie intuitive and inteiesting.
2000 by CRC Press LLC
91.3 Graphics Sultvare
Softwaie foi scientifc and engineeiing applications has changed diamatically in the past seveial yeais. In the
1970s and eaily 1980s, theie weie few giaphics softwaie tools available. Most of the engineeiing packages weie
in the CAD aiea. Many specifc engineeiing applications iequiied useis to develop and implement piogiams
to solve theii pioblems. These piogiams weie wiitten in the Foitian oi C piogiamming languages using low-
level giaphical commands oi calls to some standaid oi quasi-standaid (e.g., the CORE package) giaphical
ioutines. Most of these systems weie developed foi a mainfiame computei enviionment. A tiend begun in the
late 1980s iesulted in a change in computing haidwaie enviionments as well as in softwaie appioaches.
Piedominantly, the haidwaie platfoims aie PCs, miciocomputeis, and poweiful Unix woikstations, with most
of these machines having excellent giaphics capabilities. Softwaie moved fiom code geneiation to customized
stand-alone scientifc and engineeiing softwaie tools. Softwaie development uses standaid languages and
giaphical usei inteifaces foi CH, C, Foitian, and Pascal, as well as moie sophisticated languages such as JAVA,
HypeiText, Unix X.11, Miciosoft`s Windows, and PostSciipt. The technical community is ielying moie and
moie on the incieased powei of computeis to easily suppoit softwaie packages that manipulate complex data
and iepiesent them in a visual mannei.
Engineering Sultvare Packages
Seveial commeicial scientifc and engineeiing softwaie packages have giaphics functionality. It is diffcult to
distinguish giaphics oi visualization capabilities without discussing some of these packages. An excellent
iefeience is found in the IEEE Setrum Fotus Reor. So[ware.
These giaphical application softwaie packages fall into fve categoiies:
1. Logic simulation foi application-specifc integiated ciicuits (ASICs). Softwaie in this aiea might display
a schematic of a multigate ASIC fiom laige functional building blocks. These blocks could iepiesent a
fnite-state machine with seveial states and gates. Repiesentative packages aie Mentoi Giaphics` Auto-
Logic, Cadence Design Systems` HDL Synthesizei and Optimizei, and Teiadyne`s Fienchip. HDL is a
haidwaie desciiption language.
2. Electiomagnetic design and simulation. Softwaie in this aiea might simulate a piinted-ciicuit boaid foi
a 32-bit-wide, 8-bit-byte ieveisal netwoik. Multilayeis of a boaid aie displayed, with colois indicating
cuiient densities in lines. Repiesentative systems aie Hewlett-Packaid`s High Fiequency Stiuctuie Sim-
ulatoi (HFSS), a fnite-element-based pioduct having animation of feld plots and conductoi loss and
3-D full-wave solution and S-paiametei output; Sonnet Softwaie`s em" package with animation of
conductoi cuiients; and Compact Softwaie`s Miciowave Exploiei with X-Windows and OSF Motif
giaphical inteifaces.
3. Data acquisition, analysis, display, and technical iepoiting. Systems in this aiea have compute-intensive
analysis ioutines and enhanced visualization of data which capitalize on shaipei display iesolutions.
These packages could pioduce plots and giaphs based on acquiied data that aie displayed in seveial
windows at once; changes to one window could iesult in iecalculation and updating of coiiesponding
windows. Packages in this aiea fiequently have suppoit foi standaid languages and giaphical usei
inteifaces foi C and Foitian as well as the Unix X.11 inteiface oi Miciosoft`s Windows. Repiesentative
packages aie HP`s VEE-Test; Design Science`s MathType; DSP Development`s DADiSP; National Instiu-
ments` LabWindows; Speakeasy Computing`s Speakeasy Zeta, which featuies usei-tailoied giaphical usei
inteiface and PostSciipt output; and Mihalisin Associates` Temple-Giaph, which pioduces a coloi Post-
Sciipt output link to Ma|emata.
4. Mathematical calculations and giaphics foi visualization. Applications foi these packages would be cuive
ftting, evaluation of integials, statistical analysis, signal piocessing, and numeiical analysis. Featuies
include piogiammability in languages such as C, Foitian, and Pascal and 2-D and 3-D iepiesentations.
The leading package in this aiea is Ma|emata by Wolfiam Reseaich, which is a geneial system and
piogiamming language foi numeiical, symbolic, and giaphical computations in engineeiing, ieseaich,
science, fnancial analysis, and education Wolfiam, 1991]. Othei packages aie Amtec Engineeiing`s
Tecplot, Integiated Systems` Xmath, MathWoiks` Mathlab, Jandel Scientifc`s SigmaPlot, and NAG`s Axiom.
2000 by CRC Press LLC
5. Digital signal piocessois foi embedded systems. The tools available in this aiea let the engineei focus
on the application iathei than the piogiamming details. The Audio Fiequency Fouiiei Analyzei by
National Instiuments is a combination of giaphical piogiamming with development softwaie foi the
Macintosh enviionment. Signals can be analyzed, manipulated, and displayed using custom giaphics
softwaie. Some packages allow foi piogiamming in C and usei inteifaces. Repiesentative packages include
FIGURE 91.2 Examples of iendeied 3-D fguies geneiated on the Macintosh 7100 computei with 2MB RAM using Stiata
Studio Pio softwaie, showing the effects of diffeient iendeiing, coloiing, and lighting paiameteis on a 3-D scene. Computei
aitist: (top) Joel Rosen, (bottom) Alex Dao, M.F.A. in Computei Giaphics Design piogiam students, Rochestei Institute of
Technology.
2000 by CRC Press LLC
Signal Technology`s N!Powei, which has object-oriented programming and linkage to X-Windows, and
Bitwaie Reseaich Systems` DsqHq with ieal-time giaphics and algoiithm design.
Genera! Purpuse Libraries and Packages
Tiaditionally, giaphical softwaie systems aie developed as a iesult of piogiamming in high-level languages with
inteifaces to standaid oi quasi-standaid softwaie packages. These packages attempt to addiess the issues of
device independence and application piogiam poitability by allowing systems to diive a wide vaiiety of display
devices as well as isolating the piogiammei fiom machine-specifc giaphics commands. Poitability of piogiams
is enhanced by allowing the usei to move an application fiom one system to anothei. The piimaiy piogiamming
languages include C, Foitian, and Pascal.
The quasi-standaid giaphical package is ACM/SIGGRAPH`s Coie system developed in 1977 and ievised in
1979. While it was not a foimally iecognized standaid, it did fulfll a iole as a baseline specifcation foi giaphical
systems Foley et al., 1996]. The two offcial standaids aie GKS-3D, the 3-D Giaphical Keinel System; and
FIGURE 91.3 Examples of 3-D fguies geneiated on the Macintosh 7100 computei with 2MB RAM using Stiata Studio Pio
softwaie, showing the effects of diffeient iendeiing, coloiing, and lighting paiamateis on a 3-D scene. Computei aitist: (top)
Hyung-Joo Lee, (bottom) Jennifei Cisney, MFA in Computei Giaphics Design Piogiam students, Rochestei Institute of
Technology.
2000 by CRC Press LLC
PHIGS and PHIGS-, the Piogiammei`s Hieiaichical Inteiactive Giaphics System. Both systems suppoit giaph-
ics piimitives, such as lines, polygons, and chaiactei stiings, and theii attiibutes. The GKS system allows foi
gioupings into segments with no nesting capabilities. PHIGS suppoits geometiical tiansfoimations (i.e., scaling,
tianslating, and iotating) and a database stiuctuie that allows foi selective editing and manipulation of the
pictuie. PHIGS iuns best when theie is haidwaie suppoit foi the tiansfoimation, clipping, and rendering
featuies. Othei softwaie include the cioss-platfoim OpenGL, which is a low-level giaphics iendeiing and
imaging libiaiy, and Inventoi, which is object-oiiented and built on top of Open GL Reynolds and Danielson, 1996].
In tiaditional giaphical systems development, image data aie stoied eithei as Caitesian cooidinates oi as
vectois. These data aie manipulated thiough the geometiical tiansfoimations of scaling, tianslating, and
iotating in a iefeience system known as the wor|J toorJnae sysem (WCS). The units of the WCS system might
be inches, millimeteis, oi miles. Physical devices use theii own cooidinate systems known as streen toorJnae
sysems (SCS). In oidei to ieady the image foi display, a ewng rans[ormaon takes place, which changes the
image data in the WCS to its coiiesponding device-specifc scieen cooidinates in SCS. A wnJow oi poition of
the woild pictuie is chosen to be shown in an aiea of the display known as the ewor. Because some of the
data in the woild could be outside the window, a t|ng opeiation is necessaiy. Clipping will eliminate any
data points outside the window. These values aie then conveited to an inteimediate cooidinate system known
as the norma|:eJ Jete toorJnae sysem (NDC). Values in this system aie in the iange of 0 to 1. Because a
viewpoit may be any poition of the display aiea and the image could be displayed on moie than one device,
the NDC values aie easily adjusted to scieen cooidinates. In 3-D, the clipping volume uses the viewing
tiansfoimation which must take into account the ew re[erente on (i.e., the position fiom which an object
is to be viewed) and the ersete oi ara||e| ro,eton (i.e., the conveision fiom the object`s 3-D cooidinates
to the scieen`s 2-D cooidinates).
Su!id Mude!ing Packages
Featuie-based systems such as solid oi geometiic modeling iathei than mathematical-based systems foim the
basis of some CAD systems. Solid modeling (SM) systems use constiuctive solid geometiy to build complicated
objects. These systems have a desciiptive language which uses a database of 3-D piimitive objects such as block,
cylindei, spheie, wedge, cone, and toius. These solids aie combined to foim othei solids using the set opeiatois
of union, inteisection, and diffeience. The iesultant object can then be named, saved, and positioned into a
pictuie oi diawing. Attiibutes stoied with the objects allow them to be displayed in wiie-fiame foimat oi as a
completely iendeied image. Repiesentative SM systems aie MAGI (Mathematical Applications Gioup, Inc.),
Synthavision, PADL-2 (Pioduction Automation Pioject), GM Solid (a piopiietaiy package of Geneial Motois),
and McDonnell Douglas`s UNISOLID Teicholz, 1985].
Object-Oriented Prugramming
Object-oiiented piogiamming is the paiadigm foi designing and implementing softwaie and is paiticulaily
impoitant in computei giaphics. An engineeiing appioach, these languages allow softwaie to be constiucted
fiom ieusable, inteichangeable, and extensible paits Cunningham et al., 1992]. C|ass libiaiies of giaphical
objects aie being developed. Classes of objects aie defned in teims of what an object can do (i.e., what actions
and ieactions it might pioduce) and communicate via messages. Subclasses n|er actions oi chaiacteiistics of
the supeiclass. Foi example, a iobot could be constiucted fiom instances of such classes as legs, aims, and head.
Each class would have actions defned foi it (e.g., a head would be able to nod up and down oi shake fiom
side to side). An instance of a head in the object iobot would pieseive these chaiacteiistics. Repiesentative
object-oiiented languages aie Smalltalk, C--, Objective-C, Actoi, and Object Pascal.
P!utting and Page Descriptiun Languages
Plotting packages, such as ISSCO`s DISSPLA and Piecision Visuals` DI-3000, consist of ioutines that aie callable
fiom a high-level piogiam. These packages handle 2-D and 3-D images and geneially display them in a wiie-
fiame foimat.
2000 by CRC Press LLC
Page desciiption languages aie desktop publishing foimats that pioduce giaphical output on a piintei, display,
oi othei output device. They aie used in application piogiams such as composition systems and illustiatois
wheie text, giaphical shapes, and sampled images aie to be combined into a single document. The dominant
language in this categoiy is PostSciipt, which is a simple inteipietive piogiamming language with poweiful
giaphics capabilities. It communicates the desciiption of a document to a piinting system in a high level, device-
independent mannei. PostSciipt featuies constiuction of aibitiaiy shapes, which may self-inteisect, be painted,
tiansfoimed, ciopped, oi iendeied. The commands aie embedded in a geneial puipose piogiamming language.
PostSciipt piogiams can be cieated, tiansmitted, and inteipieted in the foim of ASCII souice text. The iesultant
iepiesentations will allow foi document inteichange Adobe, 1990].
Interactiun
The powei of computei giaphics is to be able to input commands oi data in a mannei that is appiopiiate foi
an application and to have the piogiam ieact in a timely fashion. These inteiactions may involve typing woids
oi labels, pointing to items oi commands, specifying values oi diiections foi movement, oi choosing pictuie
paits displayed on the scieen.
Some of the input devices that aie available include mouse, special puipose keyboaids using buttons oi dials,
data gloves and othei VR devices, touch panels and scieens, light pens, giaphics tablets, joysticks, 3-D digitizeis,
tiackballs, and voice systems. Each of these devices is capable of sending appiopiiate values to the giaphics
piogiam foi action Heain and Bakei, 1997].
Giaphics softwaie packages categoiize input devices as one of the following logical devices:
1. Locatoi: a device foi specifying a cooidinate position (x,y) oi oiientation (e.g., tablet)
2. Valuatoi: a device foi specifying scalai values (e.g., dials)
3. Keyboaid: a device foi specifying text input
4. Pick: a device foi selecting displayed entities (e.g., mouse)
5. Choice/button: a device foi selecting among alteinatives (e.g., function keys)
In some systems, an input device might be used foi moie than one opeiation. Foi example, in the Macintosh
computei, the mouse is used as a locatoi, valuatoi, and pick device Foley et al., 1996].
91.4 Cunc!usiun
The feld of computei giaphics has changed diamatically ovei the past decade. Scientifc and engineeiing
applications have expanded fiom the CAD systems to scientifc visualization of complex systems, enhanced
solid modeling systems, ieal-time animated simulations, and now to anothei dimension, viitual ieality.
On the haidwaie side, we have seen a movement fiom laige, costly systems to putting the powei and speed
of computeis with advanced giaphics capabilities on a desktop. PCs, miciocomputeis, and piofessional woik-
stations have piovided cost-effective platfoims that aie within the ieach of eveiy engineei.
Inteiaction with a system has been simplifed. In most cases, the usei has been ielieved of the task of keying
in and iemembeiing commands. By meiely pointing to menu items, the usei is led thiough a system.
Advances in haidwaie have diiven the softwaie development side. Gone aie the days of tediously piogiam-
ming and inteifacing with low-level giaphics commands. Off-the-shelf and vendoi-supplied applications pack-
ages that incoipoiate sophisticated giaphics abound. These systems aie chaiacteiized by usei-fiiendly inteifaces
and high-quality output capabilities.
When piogiamming is necessaiy, high-level pictuie constiucts thiough object-oiiented enviionments make
manipulation of giaphical images moie natuial. Othei suppoit allows foi high-level inteifaces to X-Windows,
Windows, and PostSciipt by pioviding the piogiammei with moie giaphical development tools.
Oveiall, scientists and engineeis will fnd the visual dimension foi theii applications an integial and common
component of theii tool kit.
2000 by CRC Press LLC
Dehning Terms
Computer graphics: The geneiation, iepiesentation, manipulation, piocessing, and display of data by a computei.
Fractals: Geometiical self-similai objects with fiactional dimension.
Object-oriented programming: An engineeiing appioach that uses softwaie constiucts that aie ieusable,
inteichangeable, and extensible.
Rendering: The piepaiation of the iepiesentation of an image to include illumination, shading, depth cueing,
coloiing, textuie, and ieection.
Scientinc visualization: The use of computei giaphics techniques to iepiesent complex physical phenomena
and multidimensional data in oidei to aid in its undeistanding and inteipietation.
Solid modeling: The use of constiuctive geometiy to build complicated 3-D objects.
Virtual reality (VR): Thiee oi moie dimensionality of computei-geneiated images, which give the usei a
sense of piesence (i.e., a fist-peison expeiience) in the scene.
Volume visualization: A method of extiacting infoimation fiom datasets with inteiactive giaphics and
imaging; it is conceined with the iepiesentation, manipulation, and iendeiing of volumetiic data Kaufmen
et al., 1996].
Re!ated Tupics
87.2 High-Level Languages 89.2 Computei Output Piintei Technologies
Relerences
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L. Ammeiaal, Programmng Prnt|es n Comuer Cra|ts, New Yoik: John Wiley, 1986.
M. Bailey, A. Glassnei, and P. Wennei, Intioduction to Computei Giaphics, Couise Notes, 23id Inteinational
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M. Biown, UnJersanJng PHICS, TEMPLATE, San Diego: Megatek Coipoiation, 1985.
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S. Haiiington, Comuer Cra|ts. Programmng roat|, New Yoik: McGiaw-Hill, 2nd ed., 1997.
D. Heain and M.P. Bakei, Comuer Cra|ts, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Pientice-Hall, 1986.
A. Kaufman, R. Avila, B. Loiensen, L. Sobieiajski, and R. Yagel, Volume Visualization: Piinciples and Piactice,
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T. Reynolds and K. Danielson, Piogiamming with OpenGL: An Intioduction, Couise Notes, 23id Inteinational
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2000 by CRC Press LLC
Further Inlurmatiun
Two piofessional computing oiganizations publish peiiodicals that aie specifcally devoted to the feld of
computei giaphics and piovide an excellent foium foi cuiient ieseaich and techniques. The Association foi
Computing Machineiy (ACM) publishes CM Transatons on Cra|ts and the IEEE publishes IEEE Comuer
Cra|ts anJ |taons.
SIGGRAPH, ACM`s special inteiest gioup on giaphics, sponsois an annual confeience and exhibit as well
as offeiing a vaiiety of tutoiials and couise notes. Othei majoi confeiences aie sponsoied by the National
Computei Giaphics Association and Euiogiaphics.